The tragedy of procmail

For those who may not know, procmail is a email processing program, very fully featured, very powerful, not user-friendly in the slightest.  Why use it?  Because it processes and sorts your mail before you go to read it, which is a fantastic thing.  But why in 17 years hasn’t someone come up with a better, less cryptic syntax for such features.  Writing my procmailrc is such a pain, getting the little-known syntax just right.  Most of the guys who write about procmail “recipies” on the web are just trying to show off their sheer “geekness”, that they have somehow come to understand a mystery thought equal to that of the female psyche (but at least there is some documentation for procmail).

When I am rich (God, please not famous), I would like to write a procmail alternative, written in Ada, of course.  Don’t hold your breath for this one.

2 Responses to “The tragedy of procmail”

  1. ed kreeuwen Says:

    i have a question about some php you did ( mime mailer php ). Where can i mail you?

  2. joy Says:

    procmail just makes me think of proctology. That’s just wrong. No procmail for me, thanks